In order to conduct business or to operate, businesses and organizations often collect data about individuals or objects. The collected data enables individuals or objects to be identified, and may also be used to enable the individuals or objects to be communicated with. Types of data collected in this context may include, for example, personally identifiable information (PII) that may uniquely identify an individual, or that may be used with other data to identify an individual. In the context of an object, such as a computing device, identifying data may include an Internet protocol (IP) address, a host name, and location information.
In many countries the use of personally identifiable information may be governed by legislation, such as data privacy or data protection legislation. One example of such legislation is the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act. In many countries, legislation may prohibit personally identifiable information from being sent outside of a country or region (such as the European Economic Area) borders.
Such legislation, however, may be inconvenient for businesses and organizations that operate in and obtain personally identifiable information from multiple countries or regions.